The House of Brides

May 1, 2019

Australian debut author Cockram shoves off with a 100,000-copy first printing and references to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca in a narrative that opens with suddenly flopped social media influencer Miranda fleeing to England in disgrace. Seeking a job as nanny to the Summer family, she hides their connection; her mother was Tessa Summer, whose The House of Brides chronicled the benighted women who married into the family. Once there, Miranda is shocked: one child is wheelchair-bound, the house is not the renovated luxury hotel it was advertised to be, and the current bride, celebrity chef Daphne, is nowhere to be seen.

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August 5, 2019
In Cockram’s atmospheric debut, a clever twist on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, a woman hoping to learn more about her deceased mother steps into a wasp’s nest of secrets and lies. The reputation and finances of Miranda Summer, an Australian social media influencer, are in ruins after she makes fraudulent claims on her health and wellness app. She receives a letter addressed to her mother, Tessa, an author who died when Miranda was a girl, from Tessa’s 12-year-old cousin Sophie, asking for help at the family house. The letter leads the impulsive Miranda to the foreboding, and possibly haunted, Barnsley House, now a renowned English oceanside restaurant and hotel, which Tessa wrote about in her famous—and only—novel, The House of Brides. The intimidating housekeeper Mrs. Mins mistakes Miranda for the new nanny, which Miranda doesn’t correct. Miranda’s estranged uncle, Max, is aloof, and his wife, Daphne, a famous chef, has stayed in bed since the auto accident that put their daughter, Agatha, in a wheelchair. Miranda senses things aren’t quite right in the home, but she enjoys caring for Agatha, Sophie, and their brother, Robbie, and starts piecing together her family’s strange history and its extraordinary women. When Daphne disappears, shocking secrets rise to the surface. Miranda, who narrates, is flawed but relatable, and Cockram’s plot crackles with tension, hitting all the right notes for readers fond of gothic-flavored tales.

August 15, 2019
A disgraced Australian wellness guru heads up the cast of a du Maurier-inspired thriller. "Yesterday I found an article about Barnsley House in an old magazine." Just as this doesn't quite have the resonance of "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again," Cockram's debut--containing characters named Daphne and Max Summer (not de Winter), an evil housekeeper, a house fire, etc.--does not benefit by comparison to its model. So let's forget that for now. " 'Promise me, Miranda. Promise me not to be ordinary.' Her lip curled slightly at the word. 'Promise me you'll be an amazing woman too.' " The late Tessa Summer's exhortation to her daughter, Miranda, may have inspired the ambition that led to Miranda's claims that her Instagram-famous healthy recipes could cure infertility, but the only amazing things about her moment in the spotlight are a) that it ever happened, and b) the public humiliation that followed. Now Miranda's appropriated Daddy's credit card and is headed to the English country estate where her mother was raised, currently a destination restaurant and hotel, whose history Tessa wrote about in an international bestseller called The House of Brides. Apparently a compulsive liar, Miranda pretends she's answering an ad looking for a nanny rather than reveal her blood relationship to the Summer family. The littlest child is in a wheelchair, there's a cracked-up car in the driveway, the hotel and restaurant are closed, the kids' uninvolved mother vanishes within days of Miranda's arrival, and on top of all this tsuris, the accidental nanny develops obsessional "cravings for food devoid of any nutritional value." When she tears up upon hearing someone finally say something nice about Tessa, she attributes it to "all the processed food I was eating." One hopes this is supposed to be funny. Parody would have been the best bet for this novel, with its two-dimensional characters, passion for clichés, and bewilderingly overcomplicated plot which relies on novelistic diary passages and closed-circuit security videos to make any sense at all. Amateurish and often laughable--but at least it's not ordinary.

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September 1, 2019
In this atmospheric and surprising debut, Cockram explores the history of the fictional Summer family and their iconic estate, Barnsley. Miranda Courtenay is an Australian native, a former lifestyle influencer recovering from a public shaming. She's in her mid-twenties, restless, headstrong, and desperate to get away from her controlling father. Miranda's mother died young, but she left behind a bestselling history of her family's estate, The House of Brides. The brides are the many women who have married into the Summer family, including celebrity chef Daphne. Itching to escape, Miranda flies to England, determined to uncover the secrets of Barnsley House using any deception necessary, including posing as a prospective nanny so the family won't know she's a relative. Cockram handles the many threads of this story with ease, keeping the reader guessing as Miranda excavates the house's past and speculates about its future. An ongoing theme of misdirection flows throughout, maintaining the tension and suspense. Fans of Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key (2019) will enjoy this novel with a similar premise.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)